


Miscalculation

by Katsuko



Series: Hurt/Comfort Bingo 2011 [10]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Angst, Community: hc_bingo, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, NaNoWriMo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-12
Updated: 2011-12-12
Packaged: 2017-10-27 06:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/292523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katsuko/pseuds/Katsuko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a dangerous job, and not for the usual reasons a job could be hazardous to one's health. Written for both <span><a href="http://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/"><b>hc_bingo</b></a></span> and NaNoWriMo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Miscalculation

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**hc_bingo**](http://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/) Round 2, the prompt being "coma." Also part of my aborted fill-the-card NaNo self-challenge.

Extraction was a dangerous job, and not for the reasons that many would think.

Sure, there was the thrill of entering another's mind, moving within the dream to find what the client wanted. There was the possibility that the target had dream security training, that at any moment the projections would turn against the dreamer. There was the adrenaline rush of having to move fast if things went south, packing up everything and fleeing without a trace.

Those were risks, no doubt about it. But the real danger laid in getting so caught within the dream, so deeply under from the sedatives that one might not even wake up when the job was done.

 

Although everyone had scattered to the winds after the Fischer inception, it hadn't taken too much looking to get most of the team back together for a new extraction. Arthur had managed to keep tabs on each person and had contacted each personally. Ariadne was on board almost immediately, finding that life was a bit dull after spending time working in the dreamscape; Yusef agreed to provide the sedatives necessary for a dual-level dream; Eames had simply given that smile he thought was charming and said something about _always_ being ready to offer assistance should Arthur ask for it.

(To be honest with himself, if with no one else, Arthur really did find that infuriating grin charming. He would also admit that just being in the same room with Eames caused his heart to beat a little bit faster and he was a little more self-conscious than normal. But he would deny everything the moment anyone else would even allude to those facts. Not even Cobb could pry the truth from him.)

It was odd to be running a job without Cobb involved somehow, but the man had declined to join this time around; he was making up lost time with his children, and thanks to Saito's influence the threat of Cobol was non-existent. Arthur couldn't begrudge his friend's wishes and said that he'd be in touch once the job was done.

The job started off well; the target was the CEO of a small company that supplied weapons to the British military, but was rumored to be making deals under the table with a few noted terrorist organizations. The military wanted to find out if there was any truth to said rumors, and their task was to get that information from the source. The first level of the dream was business as usual, Ariadne having designed it to resemble the target's office building and Eames making contact in the guise of an intern from legal.

Unfortunately, once they made it to the second level (Eames having drugged the target's tea while speaking to him in order to get him further under), everything went to hell.

The second level had been designed to mimic the target's weekend home in the countryside, the details painstakingly rendered to be absolutely perfect. It was on this level that a "home invasion/kidnapping" had been planned out, putting the projections representing the CEO's family in danger to make him reveal where his secrets were hidden. Unfortunately, even without dream share training, the target's mind provided his personal bodyguards to arrive once there was a hint of trouble.

The good news was that when the bodyguards showed up, the target quickly went to check his safe and Arthur was able to knock him out in order to get what they'd come for (the rumors were, in fact, true, and the British military was _extremely_ unhappy to learn that). The bad news was that Eames got shot as they were escaping, and the kick came a few seconds too late to do much good for the man.

Yusef, thank God, had agreed to monitor them while they were under; he'd quickly summoned an ambulance when Arthur snapped awake and told him what had happened, making up a story about the Englishman collapsing for no reason while on an outing with friends. The quick reaction time had gotten himself, Ariadne, Yusef, and Eames well away from the motel room where the target was still sedated, and why Arthur was now sitting by a hospital bed rather than a makeshift infirmary.

The doctors had done what they could, but the point man had already known it wouldn't do any good. Eames was in a comatose state, and the only way he would awaken was with time for his psyche to heal from the perceived physical trauma suffered in the dream. Even if he were desperate enough to bring in a PASIV device and enter the other man's subconscious now, Arthur wouldn't be able to speed the process along any.

So he did the only thing that made sense. He remained at Eames bedside for as long as the hospital staff would let him, reading the newspaper and books to the Englishman and simply talking whenever he grew tired of the printed word.

If he made any confessions, the only one around to hear them wasn't talking.

And if there was anything pure and good in the world, when Eames woke up he would know exactly why Arthur remained even after Ariadne had returned to Paris and Yusef to Mombasa.

**Author's Note:**

> For the record... this is part one of two. The other half will be posted here tomorrow.


End file.
